Goof-Up During Felicitation Of Indian Football Greats

New Delhi: In a goof-up by the organisers, former goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly was not called for the felicitation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just before India’s U-17 World Cup match against USA concluded on Friday, despite his name being there in the list.

Prime Minister Modi felicitated the captains of Indian football teams that played in the Asian Games. But when Ganguly’s name was called after P K Banerjee and Syed Nayeemuddin, Rajasthan footballer Magan Singh Rajvi came out and received the shawl and memento from the Prime Minister.

“There was a mix-up but as soon as we came to know of it, we decided to rectify it. Bhaskar was later felicitated privately at the half-time of the India vs USA match. We also apologised to him for the incident,” an official from the organisers of the felicitation ceremony reportedly told.

Others felicitated by the Prime Minister included I M Vijayan, Bhaichuing Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and Bembem Devi. PM Modi presented all of them with a shawl and a memento.